CBEB’s

I knew beforehand that some people would have a problem with the word “Douchebag” when I started BPSDB.org. Fortunately, those who would rather not add that word to their lexicon have been cool about it, and a compromise has been reached by creating a “Blogging on PseudoScience” graphic. No harm, no foul. Some people, however, feel otherwise.

Greg Laden’s Blog was the first ScienceBlog to officially join the BPSDB program (the concept had been earlier been endorsed by ScienceBlogger Green Gabbro), and it didn’t take long for the douchebag contingent to voice an opinion. Five comments into the thread, Scott Belyea chimed in with this:

Well, I continue to be puzzled why so many rational, well-educated, knowledgeable, liberal bloggers are still using references to female genitals and hygiene as the worst insults they can come up with.

Why?

For the love of Christ. There’s really no need to address this, because Stephanie Z came up with a brilliant response:

Let’s see, Scott. Transparent; full of stuff that’s at best useless, at worst harmful; and sold in coded language as the cure for a problem that doesn’t exist? Works for me.

A little research reveals that Scott Belyea is a one-trick concern troll. Look how he derailed this thread at the Panda’s thumb and tried to do the same at Recursivity.

It would appear that Mr. Belyea is still living in the pre-Dover era of “he said, she said” journalism that treated ID proponents as if they were doing legitimate science. That era is long gone, and it’s not because of Judge Jones’ ruling; it’s because it has become painfully obvious that Intelligent Design has only been pretending to be a scientific endeavor. If people want to think criticism of ID should be respectful and considerate, that’s their prerogative, but a growing number of observers have come to the realization that ID deserves nothing but mockery.

After Judge Jones’ ruling, did the “Isaac Newton of Information Theory” react by putting forth a testable theory of Intelligent design? No, he produced a cheesy flash animation. If that’s not a douchebag move on his part, I don’t know what is. If pseudo-scientists don’t want to be called douchebags, the solution is simple: stop acting like douchebags.

Incidentally, I don’t know why other people find the word “douchebag” funny, but I’ve always found it funny since the classic “Lord and Lady Doooooooouchebag!” sketch on Saturday Night Live. Plus, it - no pun intended - rolls off the tongue a lot easier than “enema bag” or “colostomy bag”.